Don Harrison's book covers a lot of hardwood

William S. Paxton

Published 6:37 pm, Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Don Harrison might have forgotten more about basketball in the Nutmeg State than most people have ever known, but he wrote a book to help educate us on the rich history here.

"Hoops in Connecticut: The Nutmeg State's Passion for Basketball" is not only in its second edition of printing, but also went digital this year as an E-book. The book is a collection of the longtime Waterbury Republican-American sports editor's work, tracing some of the game's greatest players, coaches and teams to emerge from the state.

Harrison's compact history includes the 34 state natives who have played in either the NBA or ABA. There are more than 90 images, including a color photo of 2011's UConn national championship team visiting President Obama.

"A lot of the stuff, I knew in my head and in my files," said Harrison, a 39-year Fairfield resident who got his start in sports journalism at the New York Mirror, but moved to the Republican-American in 1963.

After living his own hoop dreams growing up in East Haven and playing for the Yellow Jackets in the 1950s, Harrison turned to chronicling other hardwood exploits, with many of those tales captured in his book.

Long before Jim Calhoun came to UConn and coached the Huskies to three national championships, he was a feisty guard at American International College. Harrison recalls the time the sophomore Calhoun and AIC came to Storrs, in December 1963, and fell to the Huskies 98-67. Calhoun scored 27 that night, but sharpshooter Wes Bialosuknia scored 20 points and 6-foot-8 Toby Kimball pulled down 28 rebounds to pace UConn.

"UConn was a million miles away when I was growing up," said Harrison, who would go on to cover many Husky games along with stops at Yale, Fairfield and Sacred Heart during his career.

"I got to see Fairfield come of age in the 1960s," he said, referring to the Stags' rise under attorney/athletic director/basketball coach George Bisacca.

On the night of Jan. 4, 1965, a young reporter was sent to cover Fairfield's home game against Providence, and even though Jimmy Walker and the Friars escaped with a 72-65 win, the Stags, who had rallied from a 15-point deficit to tie it at 61, left a memorable imprint on Harrison.

For the next 16 years, Husky, Bulldog and Stag games filled Harrison's winter nights. He witnessed coach Fred Barakat lead Fairfield to three NIT trips with players like Joe DeSantis, John Ryan and 6-10 Mark Young.

"John's the greatest passer I've ever seen," Harrison said.

He watched the Huskies, led by coach Dee Rowe, make a trip to the NCAA tournament along with two NIT appearances and one ECAC title in three trips. He saw Yale rise under coach Joe Vancisin to win two Ivy League titles and 206 games.

Later, Harrison would be there when former Detroit Tiger prospect turned coach Dave Bike and the Sacred Heart Pioneers won a NCAA Division II title in 1986.

And he might surprise you with a few things in his book, namely the top shooter to come out of the state.

Harrison's answer: 5-5 guard Bridgeport native Frank "Porky" Vieira, who played collegiately at tiny Quinnipiac in the mid-1950s and rewrote the record books.

"He might be the greatest shooter to come out of Connecticut that never played in the NBA," Harrison said. "Nobody could stop him."

Going on his sixth decade of Connecticut athletics, Harrison still is a fixture at Sacred Heart and Fairfield on game nights. He even laughs about having covered players like Norwalk's Earl Kelley at UConn and now covering his son, Evan Kelley, at SHU.

"Overall, I'm pleased with the book," Harrison said, before admitting his one regret about it.

"I wish I could have (talked) with Vito Montelli (the legendary St. Joseph's coach)."

Perhaps the only thing harder to chase down than Montelli, according to Harrison, was pictures of some of the state's greats, but overall, he did a solid job with that, too.